It is well known in the art to provide reinforcements to seatback frames of seat assemblies by welding to the frame support structure. In order to increase efficiency and assembly costs, the reinforcements are robotically welded to the frame. Such reinforcements include concave portions that correspond to the shape of the frame as illustrated in FIG. 7.
The previously known reinforcements 200 are formed of a linear member 202 having a plurality of concave portions 204 that correspond to the frame 206. However, the reinforcement 200 does not allow for any variance in part tolerances. Specifically, any deviation from the specific dimensions of either the reinforcement 200 or the frame 206 results in an unacceptable robotic weld due to the formation of a gap 208. Further, the linearly adjustment of one end of the reinforcement 200 misaligns the opposite end. As such, the reinforcement 200 cannot be aligned while maintaining a proper contact of the opposite end of the reinforcement 200 and the frame 206. As such, an additional step of manually manipulating the reinforcement 200 to proper aligned to eliminate the gap 208, such as by bending or other shaping of the reinforcement 200, must be undertaken prior to the rewelding the reinforcement 200 to the frame 206.
Thus, there exists a need in the art to provide a method of reinforcing a seatback frame of a seat assembly over previous reinforcement structures and methods. Specifically, a reinforcing structure and method of reinforcement that provides linear adjustability to accommodate part tolerances such that contact is maintained while the reinforcement is aligned.